devcoach

Stay sharp while your AI does the work.

devcoach connects to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Gemini CLI (beta), Codex CLI (beta), Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP-compatible tools. After every task you complete, it delivers a short targeted lesson calibrated to what you already know — no generic tutorials, no repeated topics, nothing to open.

Everything runs locally. No data leaves your machine. One SQLite file at ~/.devcoach/coaching.db.

Built on the official Model Context Protocol TypeScript SDK, Node's embedded node:sqlite, Hono (web dashboard), and Commander (CLI). Requires Node.js ≥ 24.

Why devcoach?

AI agents now write much of our code — which makes it easy to ship more while understanding less. devcoach turns each task your agent finishes into one short, in-context lesson, so you keep learning as you go. The deeper bet: as AI grows more capable, the scarce skill becomes validating what it produces — and that ability only survives if you keep practicing it.

→ Why devcoach exists

How it works

flowchart TD
    A([Task completed]) --> B{"stop-hook:<br/>paced + rate limit ok?"}
    B -->|not yet| Z(["Silent — counter +1"])
    B -->|due| C["Cue: activate the devcoach skill"]

    subgraph skill["devcoach skill"]
        C --> D{"Technical work?"}
        D -->|no| S[skip_lesson]
        D -->|yes| E[Select topic & depth]
        E --> G[log_lesson]
        G --> F[Print lesson card]
    end

    S --> Y(["Silent — pacing re-armed"])
    F --> H(["Done — counter reset"])
    F -.->|prompts| U(["You: ✅ / ❌"])

→ Full decision flow: session startup · lesson selection · depth calibration

Privacy by design

Everything stays on your machine. No telemetry, no accounts, no calls home. Just one SQLite file.

→ Privacy & security

Installation

devcoach runs locally — a stdio MCP server that stores everything in ~/.devcoach/coaching.db on the machine where your agent runs. It works in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Gemini CLI (beta), and Codex CLI (beta), but not on claude.ai web (which only supports hosted/remote connectors).

Requires Node.js ≥ 24 (devcoach uses the embedded node:sqlite module, available only from Node 24 onward).

Pick by how you like to work — each section is self-contained (install and connect):

• Developer, comfortable in a terminal → Homebrew — one brew install, and you get the devcoach CLI too.
• Prefer a one-click, no-terminal setup → the Claude Code plugin or the .mcpb extension.
• Registry-aware MCP client? devcoach is listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.UltimaPhoenix/devcoach — install it straight from there.
• Anything else (npx, manual config, other agents, claude.ai web) is under Other install methods.

Homebrew (recommended for developers)

macOS / Linux. Add and trust the tap once, install, then connect — you also get the devcoach CLI (so devcoach ui and the CLI work without an npx prefix):

# 1. Add the tap — registers github.com/UltimaPhoenix/homebrew-tap with Homebrew
brew tap UltimaPhoenix/tap

# 2. Trust the whole tap — required when Homebrew enforces HOMEBREW_REQUIRE_TAP_TRUST
brew trust --tap UltimaPhoenix/tap

# 3. Install
brew install devcoach

# 4. Connect (Homebrew puts `devcoach` on your PATH — no `npx -y` prefix needed)
devcoach install

brew tap registers the third-party repository; brew trust --tap marks it trusted so Homebrew will load its formulae when HOMEBREW_REQUIRE_TAP_TRUST is set. Both are one-time. To update later: brew upgrade devcoach. One-liner: brew install UltimaPhoenix/tap/devcoach (run brew trust --tap UltimaPhoenix/tap first if your Homebrew enforces tap trust). The formula declares depends_on "node", so Homebrew pulls in a recent Node automatically.

Claude Code plugin (recommended for Claude Code) — Beta

The simplest way to add devcoach to Claude Code — one click, nothing to configure. It bundles everything (MCP server + automatic-coaching Stop hooks + skill), so don't also run devcoach install (or the Stop hooks get registered twice).

# Add the marketplace once, then install (you can install any UltimaPhoenix plugin from it later)
/plugin marketplace add UltimaPhoenix/claude-plugins-marketplace
/plugin install devcoach@ultimaphoenix

The MCP server, hooks, and skill activate on install — no restart needed. Open the web dashboard right from Claude Code with /devcoach:ui (or just ask — the open_ui tool). The plugin does not add the devcoach CLI, so for terminal use run npx -y devcoach ui (or use Homebrew / npm i -g devcoach for a bare devcoach).

# Straight from the devcoach repo (no separate marketplace)
/plugin marketplace add UltimaPhoenix/dev-coach
/plugin install devcoach@devcoach

# Offline — download devcoach-plugin-<version>.zip from a GitHub Release, unzip, then:
/plugin marketplace add /path/to/unzipped-folder
/plugin install devcoach@devcoach

See Claude Code plugin for how it works.

Claude Desktop extension (.mcpb) (recommended for Claude Desktop) — Beta

A single bundle that runs on Claude Desktop's built-in runtime — no Node or terminal needed. Every GitHub Release ships one:

1. Download devcoach-<version>.mcpb from the latest release
2. Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions → Install Extension… → pick the .mcpb

The bundle is self-signed, so Claude Desktop installs it as an unverified publisher (a real code-signing cert would be needed for a verified signature). Prefer to build it from source?

npm run mcpb        # → dist-mcpb/devcoach-<version>.mcpb   (npm run mcpb:sign self-signs it)

Other install methods — Beta

npx -y devcoach install

claude mcp add devcoach npx -- -y devcoach mcp

# all projects (user scope)
claude mcp add --scope user devcoach npx -- -y devcoach mcp

{ "mcpServers": { "devcoach": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "devcoach", "mcp"] } } }

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "npx -y devcoach stop-hook", "timeout": 60 }] }
    ],
    "UserPromptSubmit": [
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "npx -y devcoach prompt-hook", "timeout": 30 }] }
    ]
  }
}

npx -y devcoach install --gemini